Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- British Prime Minister David Cameron
prepared a speech that put 40 years of integration with the
continent on the line by raising the specter of a U.K. exit from
the European Union.

While Cameron postponed the speech in Amsterdam due to the
hostage crisis in Algeria, his office earlier released excerpts
for publication before the scheduled address today.

“More of the same” won’t be enough to guarantee the EU’s
future due to Britons’ dismay at a lack of consent in their
relationship with the 27-nation bloc, Cameron planned to say,
according to the text.

“There is a gap between the EU and its citizens which has
grown dramatically in recent years and which represents a lack
of democratic accountability and consent that is, yes, felt
particularly acutely in Britain,” he was due to say. “The
danger is that Europe will fail and the British people will
drift towards the exit.”

Cameron is responding to pressure from lawmakers in his
Conservative Party for looser ties with the EU or an outright
departure from the political union. While giving voice to his
base’s discontent and holding out the prospect of a popular vote
on renegotiated membership terms, Cameron has already received
pushback from European counterparts.

Obama Call

Cameron, who briefed U.S. President Barack Obama and French
President Francois Hollande on his speech yesterday, has said
that he didn’t expect Europe to be a significant issue in his
first term. Obama told Cameron “the United States values a
strong U.K. in a strong European Union,” according to a White
House readout of the call between the two leaders.

The decision to push for a renegotiation has been driven by
lawmakers in Cameron’s party, who in 2011 defied him in record
numbers to vote for a referendum on leaving the EU.

“European interests should always be the most important,”
EU President Herman Van Rompuy said yesterday. “The European
Union doesn’t just mean taking account of national concerns.”

Cameron planned to say that the deepening integration of
the 17 euro countries, which don’t include Britain, and the
demands of global competition raise “fundamental questions”
about the nature of the U.K.’s relationship with the EU.

“People are increasingly frustrated that decisions taken
further and further away from them mean their living standards
are slashed through enforced austerity or their taxes are used
to bail out governments on the other side of the continent,” he
was due to say.

Bailout Loan

Britain has contributed 3.25 billion pounds ($5.2 billion)
in the form of a loan for Ireland to 486 billion euros ($649
billion) of bailout commitments to four euro-area countries from
the EU and the International Monetary Fund.

Both Cameron’s Liberal Democrat coalition partners and the
opposition Labour Party oppose his push to loosen ties with
Europe, saying he risks investor confidence and London’s role as
a financial center.

“For many foreign investors one of Britain’s attractions
is as a gateway to a market of 500 million people,” Ed Balls,
economy spokesman for Labour, wrote in an article on the
Guardian newspaper’s website. “At a time when securing jobs and
growth must be the priority in Europe and when the future shape
of the euro zone remains so uncertain, announcing now a
referendum that will raise fears that Britain could leave the EU
cannot be in our national interest.”

Forty-two percent of the electorate say they would vote
to leave the EU in a referendum compared with 36 percent who said
they would back staying in, according to a YouGov Plc poll
conducted online on Jan. 10 and 11. A YouGov poll in November
found 51 percent favoring an exit.